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Press Room

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education.
AAC&U is an excellent source of information on undergraduate curricular change, how colleges are changing to meet the needs of the new global economy, general education reform, student learning outcomes assessment, diversity and equity in higher education, and global issues in higher education.

AAC&U champions a contemporary vision of liberal education and sponsors a campaign called Liberal Education and America's Promise to expand public and student understanding of what really matters in college—the kinds of learning that will truly empower students to succeed and make a difference in the 21st century.

Recent Press Releases

Washington, DC—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the winner of its Frederic W. Ness Book Award, The Aims of Higher Education: Problems of Morality and Justice, a collection of essays published in 2015 by the University of Chicago Press. The Ness award is given for the book that best contributes to the understanding and improvement of liberal education, and was formally presented to the editors, Harry Brighouse and Michael McPherson, at AAC&U’s Annual Meeting on January 26,...Read more

Washington, DC—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today that it has received a $520,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman, for a three-year initiative supporting the collaboration with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to create Centers for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) at higher education institutions across the country.

The grant will support a multi-year initiative to implement ten TRHT Centers, which will be designed to engage and empower...Read more

Washington, DC­­—The Association of American Colleges and Universities announced today the 2017 recipients of the annual K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award. This award recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education; who demonstrate a commitment to developing academic and civic responsibility in themselves and in others; and whose work reflects a strong emphasis on teaching and learning. The award is named in honor of K. Patricia Cross, professor of higher education, emerita, at the University...Read more

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) proudly collaborates with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and more than 130 organizations for the first-ever National Day of Racial Healing on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. To mark this date, WKKF and organizations collaborating in its Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) enterprise will carry out a variety of events focused on the TRHT goals of jettisoning the belief in a hierarchy of human value and engaging communities in transforming America’s racial narrative. The TRHT community, corporate, and nonprofit partners represent a collective network of nearly 300 million individuals.Read more

San Francisco, CA—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) will hold its Annual Meeting in San Francisco from January 25–28, 2017. AAC&U’s 2017 Annual Meeting, “Building Public Trust in the Promise of Liberal Education and Inclusive Excellence,” will respond to the urgent need—expressed by educators from campuses across the country—for more effective approaches to restoring public trust in higher education and improving public understanding of how liberal education and inclusive excellence are valuable “public” and “private” goods. Rebuilding the public’s trust in higher and liberal education requires educators and leaders from across sectors to paint a more compelling and vivid picture of how colleges and universities are improving student learning and reinventing liberal education to serve today’s students and to solve today’s challenges.Read more

Washington, DC—The Association of American College and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the launch of the LEAP Connections Resource Hub—a new online resource hub and virtual community of practice for community college educators. The site was developed with support from The Kresge Foundation as part of AAC&U’s Advancing Roadmaps for Community College Leadership to Improve Student Learning and Success initiative. Read more

Led by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and its Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), over four hundred STEM faculty and administrators— representing more than 160 institutions or higher education and STEM professional societies—pledged to participate in Active Learning Day, organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as part of its nationwide Call to Action to improve education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). These educators pledged to support the kinds of active teaching and learning strategies in STEM classrooms that are culturally responsive to today’s undergraduate population.Read more

Today, the Washington Internship Institute, in partnership with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), announced the three faculty members participating in the Faculty Fellows program for the Fall 2016 semester.

The Faculty Fellows program provides a unique faculty development experience by offering faculty from all disciplines the opportunities to pursue their professional, disciplinary, and personal interests in challenging and dynamic professional environments, and to reinvigorate their work as scholars, teachers, advisers, and educational leaders.Read more

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands—Four diverse and prominent institutions of higher education have joined forces to conduct research on proven leadership approaches to broadening participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). With the generous support of a $2.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the University of the Virgin Islands and its partners - Fielding Graduate University, North Carolina A&T State University and the Association of American Colleges and Universities - have collaborated to launch the Center for Advancing STEM Leadership....Read more

The Bringing Theory to Practice Project (BTtoP) is pleased to announce the release of a new publication funded with the support of the Endeavor Foundation: Well-Being and Higher Education: A Strategy for Change and the Realization of Education’s Greater Purposes.Read more

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About AAC&U

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. It's members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises nearly 1,400 member institutions — including accredited public and private colleges, community colleges, research universities, and comprehensive universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. It's mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education and inclusive excellence at both the national and local levels, and to help institutions to keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Liberal Education and America's Promise

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AAC&U senior staff members and senior fellows are reliable and expert sources of information on many topics related to undergraduate education and liberal learning. AAC&U staff members can also direct reporters to experts in the field at any of our nearly 1,400 member colleges and universities. See a complete list of AAC&U experts.

For general information or to be put in touch with an appropriate source, contact Anne Jenkins, Senior Director for Communications, at 202-884-7422 or jenkins@aacu.org.